


Eas

by Lownly



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: But Only a Little Bit - Freeform, Celtic-inspired, Fantasy, M/M, Post-Apocalyptic, Sci-Fi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-09-06
Updated: 2014-09-06
Packaged: 2018-02-16 09:47:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2265129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lownly/pseuds/Lownly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jean Kirschtein is a looter from a piss-poor village, looking to get rich quick with his friends Sasha and Connie by stealing from ancient ruins.</p><p>But what happens when while out on a raid, Jean stumbles upon, not ancient texts or technology or valuable metals, but a <i>person</i> instead?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Eas

**Author's Note:**

> Giving the first chapter of this thing a test run on ao3  
> this au MAY stick around, and if I'm really feeling it, I'll update it every now and then, but I'm really iffy about it
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> [boopty boop a thing for the ears](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eV1xumzX8dE)

Hey… the name’s Jean Kirschtein. It’s kind of an _important_ name, if I do say so myself! Considering the fact that I… uh… may or may not have almost destroyed all of civilization.  
  
One of you out there is probably also thinkin’, _“Wow, this guy almost destroyed all of civilization, what a selfish, reckless prick.”_ And to _you_ , thinker of dumb shit that no one wants to hear, I say: Shut the fuck up. Because I will have you know that it was one of the best decisions I’d ever made. And I’d do it again in a heartbeat. So just… sit down and shut up so I can tell you exactly what happened.  
It started not long before our Festival of Fire, between the spring equinox and summer solstice.  
  
  
“The hell are you doing here, Jaeger!?”  
“My _job_ , asshole! What’s _your_ excuse!?”  
I flashed him a cocky grin as we continued to zip through the air, massive pillars of earthy-brown wood occasionally blocking my view of him as we flew by, trees blurring past. All around us were green budding leaves and warm brown bark, bright sunlight filtering through the thick canopy overhead. It was a beautiful day; not too warm, not too cool, as well as the occasional light breeze. The wind was loud in my ears as we continued to zip line through the woods, mechanical grappling hooks whirring as they reeled in their iron chains, pulling us along as we swung through the air.  
“Oh, you know!” I called to him. “Just the usual; snatching shit right out from under your no-gAH!”  
As it just so happened, a passing dragon came out from nowhere and collided head-on with my face right then, its tiny scales scratching my cheek and causing me to splutter—the little shits were everywhere in here. I reflexively clicked the trigger of my left hookshot, releasing it from the wood of an approaching tree, and was sent plummeting at a forty-five degree angle. Kicking my legs out wildly as I gave an embarrassing cry, I brought up my right hook and aimed it at the nearest tree, and I flew forward once again, albeit _this_ time several meters lower. Looking behind me, I found that Eren was colliding with the tree I had previously been in front of, several meters above me, and I let out a harsh bark of laughter.  
“That’s what you get for trying to jump me, jackass!”  
Hanging down from a branch by his right hook, he glowered at me as I zipped away, green eyes gleaming with fury.  
“I’m not the idiot who ran into a _dragon!”_ he called after me. “ _You filthy looter_!”  
I muttered a stubborn “Fuck you” as I went on my merry way.  
  
Running into Jaeger wasn’t an uncommon occurrence when it came to our regular raids; as one of the King’s Soldiers, it was of course his _job_ to go into disrupted ruins and wreck the activated Titaniums. That’s what he’d been trained for, ever since two of them entered our village and took the life of his mother. His two cronies, Mikasa and Armin, followed him into the military as well. His entire focus was on eradicating every single metal man in existence, ranting and raving every fucking day about how they were an enemy to mankind, completely ignoring the fact that _mankind was what made them in the first place._ Long, long ago, when we had the means and intelligence to do so.  
Why they attacked us, and for what purposes they served, no one was sure. But one thing was certain: they only attacked when certain territories were invaded. Territories that were rich with the ruins of ancient times past, times of prosperity and invention and the sciences. But most of all, rich in _valuable metals and luxuries._ And that’s what I was around for!  
I’m an honest man. I’ll be the first to say that I was completely in it for the money. The underground market paid well for what we found in the ruins, and I’m not afraid to admit that I was aiming to become a rich man. After all, what’s so wrong with wanting a life of comfort and luxury for myself? Growing up in my tiny run-down village at the bottom of a well-known valley, I’d learned of life in otherwise conditions, and was ready for a change. So raiding the ruins it was, bagging records and riches and tapestries and wires.  
Sneaking past the Territory guards was no big deal. The Titaniums that activated upon my arrival, however, were another issue entirely. But we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it, yeah?  
  
I continued my way through the oversized forest, keeping an eye open for any sign of the ruins that were certainly hidden therein; stray cobblestones, pillars of stone and metal, a winding brick road…. but my well-trained eyes picked up on nothing. Only more trees, more grass, and more dirt. Maybe a squirrel or two.  
Just then, the _click_ and _whirr_ of a hookshot sounded to my right, and I glanced behind to see a round, bald head approaching at maximum speed.  
  
“You see anything yet!?” Connie shouted as he swung closer.  
“Nah, nothing!” I called back. “I think we gotta go deeper! Where’s Sasha!?”  
“Mikasa!” he replied, and I nodded.  
Mikasa was a tough one; she could fly and twist through the air with all the agility and versatility of an acrobat, having truly mastered the hookshot. And I don’t mean to boast, but, heh, I’m pretty sure I was one of the few who could match her skills one-for-one in that respect, what with my _natural talent_ when it came to the strange devices.  
Hand-to-hand combat, though? Nah, she can and has kicked my ass plenty of times. But, you know, in my defense, she _was_ a trained soldier, so I mean. Not my fault.  
  
All that aside, it seemed that Sasha was having a run-in with one of the toughest of the army’s young soldiers, but it was nothing she couldn’t handle; I trusted Sasha. She was tough as nails, with the eyes of a hawk to match. You did _not_ want to get on her bad side if she had a bow and arrow in hand, and even when she _didn’t_ , she’d probably just eat you whole.  
But Mikasa was just as frightening, if not more, so I might have worried a _little_. Hopefully we’d run into her soon. And speaking of running into people….  
  
A glint of gold and yellow caught my eye, and I squinted down at the ground to find a young man with long, pulled-back blond hair that reflected the dappled sunlight, standing idly by a tree, glaring up in our direction with hard blue eyes. Connie and I quickly began to descend in his direction.  
  
“Heeeey, howsit goin, Armin!?” Connie shouted as we approached, and Armin folded his arms over his chest in answer. His hookshots were currently tucked into his belt, so it seemed as though he’d been waiting around there for a while. We hit the soft grass at a slight jog and made our way over to the soldier, unable to keep the grins off our faces. Armin knew it was futile to try and fight us off. He never tried to anymore. Instead, he’d always try and talk us out of it, and a _few_ times, under a _few_ circumstances, it had worked. But it wasn’t going to today.  
“What do you wanna tell us today, huh?” I asked, leaning against the massive tree next to him. He scowled up at me harder, thick brows furrowed over his eyes, before letting out a huff of air through his nostrils.  
  
“Jean, you really don’t want to go into these ruins.”  
  
“Mmmm, but you see, I think I _do_.”  
  
“No, I mean you _really don’t_. You guys have already activated five Titaniums just on your way _here_.”  
  
My eyebrows raised at that. Five Titaniums was a little excessive…. Usually we only activated two or three on our looting missions. And here, we’d already activated _five?_ We hadn’t even _found_ the damned ruins yet.  
  
“They… they haven’t left the forest, yet, have they?” I asked, my voice cracking, and Connie shifted uneasily beside me. We loved to loot, but we’d never caused a Titanium to destroy a village before. Those were mistakes made by reckless and _selfish_ raiders. Connie, Sasha and I? We went in, ripped the wires out of any Titaniums we activated, grabbed the loot and left.  
  
“Mikasa and Sasha got rid of one a quarter of an hour ago. Mikasa has killed three others. Eren killed the last one.”  
  
I let out a sigh of relief. “Gods, Armin. You fuckin scared me… don’t do that.”  
  
“That wasn’t the point I was trying to make. What I’m _saying_ is that we’re almost _positive_ there’s a huge nest of Titaniums here.”  
  
Connie let out a low whistle. “Whatever they’re protecting here, then, it must be worth a fortune!”  
  
“This could be our big break!”  
  
Connie and I let out whoops of excitement as we high-fived each other, thoughts of piles of gold and jewels filling our heads, my heart thumping eagerly against my ribcage and sending my pulse to pound through my veins. Money. Food. _Chicks._ But Armin was _clearly_ not feeling the same enthusiasm.  
  
“ _No!”_ he shouted. “You’re going to get us all _killed!_ You can’t destroy that many Titaniums single-handedly!

“Armin, Armin, Armin,” I sighed, shaking my head and throwing an arm around his shoulders. He stiffened at the unwanted contact. “If this place is _so_ important, then how come there aren’t more of you soldiers swarming the area? Huh?”  
  
“……..I. Just haven’t told my superiors yet.”

“So it’s all just personal speculation?”  
  
He glared at me, thick eyebrows knit together in frustration. “When have I been wrong, Jean?”

“Never. I know that. And I trust you, you’ve proven time and again that you know your stuff. But how many Titaniums in _one_ place could there _possibly_ be?”  
  
Connie joined in on his other side, his arm wrapping around the slightly-taller blond’s neck. “Surely not enough to overtake the six of us together? Eh?”  
Armin shook us off from around him, stepping away from us. “No! Mikasa and Eren and I are _not_ going to fight off whatever Titaniums _you three_ activate just because you’re all selfish and greedy! Looting the ruins is illegal, and you _know that,_ and I’m not about to get caught helping a bunch of _criminals._ ”  
  
“The thing is, though,” I said with a shrug, “Is that you’ll be helping us kill Titaniums whether you agree to help us or _not._ Protecting the civilians from them is your _job_ , yeah?”  
  
Armin sent me a glare that chilled me to the bone, and I shivered involuntarily before shrugging again and trying to pretend I was unaffected.  
  
“Too bad you don’t know where the ruins are,” he said matter-of-factly.  
  
Connie and I stared at him with wide, curious eyes before we exchanged glances, raising our eyebrows at one another and turning back to the soldier. We stepped towards him in unison.  
He took a step back.  
  
“Armin,” Connie murmured quietly, “we know you carry maps on you.”  
  
He took another step away from us, and his back met the rough bark of the tree behind him, trapping him there. And, ever so slowly, he began to slide around the edge of the tree.  
  
“Do you think you’re sneaky or something!?” Connie yelled as he lunged towards him, and Armin ran for it, skirting the edge of the tree all the way around. We quickly followed after him, thick leather boots slamming against the soft grass and loose earth. Throwing my hand out and tripping forward a bit, my fingers caught on his tunic a bit, and he stumbled. But he quickly pulled away.  
  
“ _Damn!”  
  
_ We continued in pursuit, breathing heavily as we tried to catch up with him, but soon he was clear of the tree and hurrying through the underbrush, with me only five or so meters behind. The thing with Armin was: he was fast at _first._ But his endurance was complete shit. We took advantage of that weakness often, and we planned to take advantage of it again.  
  
But that was when the sound of metal scraping into wood met our ears with a _‘clunk’_ , the clinking of a chain causing all three of us to stop and turn. A flash of red-brown hair flew into view as Sasha swung around the trunk of the massive tree we’d all just run around, the skirt of her dress tied at her hip so she could travel through the forest unhindered. Her ponytail blew in the wind as she quickly touched down onto the carpet of grass, her boots almost silent on the moist soil. Her voice, on the other hand, was anything but.  
“Where are you guys _going!?”_ she shouted, pointing at the tree behind her with her thumb. “He’s leading you away!”  
  
Connie and I’s gaze followed the path of her thumb to the base of the tree, where a thick, white slab of stone sat in the grass.

I turned back to Armin just in time to see him smack a palm to his forehead, and I threw him one of my well-known smirks. “You think you’re clever, huh?” I asked.

“Well, obviously it was clever enough to work on _you_ two,” he growled under his breath. He then began walking back over to us, Connie and I jogging back over to crowd around the stone with Sasha. She smacked us lightly over the head before crouching down around the slab, inspecting it.

“Sasha, where’s Eren and Mikasa?” Armin asked, a nervous edge to his voice.

“I let them take care of another two Titaniums, took my chance to slip away,” she said without looking up. “They’ll be fine.”

Narrowing my eyes and kneeling down to get a closer look, I swept my fingers over the bumpy and uneven surface of the stone, deep indentions encrusted with dirt decorating it. Carvings. In the Old Language.

“You wouldn’t happen to know what this says, would you, Armin?”

I cast him a sideways glance to see him shake his head, frowning in resignation. “’Fraid not. All we know is that it’s a warning of some sort. Which is why you should think twice about going down there…”  
  
“Tch.”  
  
“I’m serious! Do you want to die!?”  
  
“No one’s gonna die today, relax.” Heaving a weighty sigh, I gripped the edge of the stone nearest me. “Come on, guys, help me.”

Connie and Sasha nodded before doing the same, all of us gathered around one side of the heavy slab, poised to lift while Armin hung back and watched us with folded arms and a disappointed frown.

“On the count of three, yeah? One… two… three-!”

The fucker was heavy. But with the three of us together, we easily lifted it from one side and flipped it over, revealing a deep, dark hole in the earth. We stood up, brushing off our hands as we examined the small entrance; just barely large enough for one person to fit in at a time.

Connie wiped his brow. “So… who wants to go down there first?”

“What? You _scared?”_ I sneered, leaning to the side to try and get a better view of what was down there. But it was all pitch black.

“I’m not scared, so much as _I can’t see down there._ It’s black as night, Jean.”

“Yeah, whatever, who’s got the torches?”

Sasha stepped over to my side and threw three, long, thick branches to the ground, the ends wrapped in damp and discolored cloth, prepared earlier by the three of us; there were always dark spots in the ruins, so the torches came in handy for raids. But we _hadn’t_ expected the entire place to be completely underground. Torches only lasted a good 20 minutes or so….

“We’ll have to be quick,” I told them, pulling out a few shards of flint and showering one torch in sparks. Once ablaze, I scooped it up off the damp ground, taking care to stomp on the singed earth for good measure, and hurried to the little hole. Upon closer inspection, I found that there was a small, sloping shelf of rock at the entrance, and another below it. Tiny, shallow, makeshift steps, covered in years of dirt and decay so that it was more of a _slide_ than a stairway.

“H-hey, Armin… just in case things go bad… is there another way out of whatever’s down there?” I frowned over at him to find my feelings of concern and worry reflected back at me, his blue eyes wide.

“I really don’t know, Jean.”

…Real reassuring.

“How badly do we wanna get rich?” I asked, staring down at the hole again.

“Are you seriously having second thoughts?” Sasha asked, folding her arms tightly over her chest. “You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.”

Glancing between Armin and Sasha, I quickly weighed my options. Armin seemed really set against this. But then again, it was his _job_ to deter us from looting the ruins. What he said about this being a Titanium nest could be complete horseshit. I wasn’t about to put it past the guy to lie to get his job done… I mean, Armin’s smart. But far from the definition of a goody two-shoes.

“Well… you’ve already lit your torch,” Connie reasoned. “And you’re good with a hookshot. You’re not going to die at the hands of what, _five_ Titaniums at _most?”_

Connie was right. There were never very many of the things in one area. A “Titanium Nest”, if that’s what we were actually dealing with, would probably consist of as many metal men as I could count on both my hands…. So what was I waiting for?

Down the hole I went.

Time to be rich.

“I’ll scream if I’m dead, so you guys know not to come down, alright?” I grinned, placing a foot on the first rocky ledge. Apparently, my joke wasn’t as funny as I thought it was, because Sasha came up behind me and shoved me forward at that, causing my foot to slip and sending me sliding. “ _Fuck!”_

I was tumbling and slipping and sliding down a sheer slope, darkness all around me as I dropped the torch and watched its light fly ahead of me. I distinctly remember the repetitive pain as each ‘stair’ dug into my ass and back, slamming down on each one as I continued to fall again and again. It just kept happening. It couldn’t have lasted more than fifteen seconds, but it felt like forever, and it fucking _hurt._

When I finally rolled out of the tunnel, the first thing I was aware of was how smooth and cold the floor was as I skidded across it. It chilled me through my pants and tunic, my hookshots nearly falling out of my belt as they clacked against the hard floor. The air in that dark room was cool, and somewhat damp, I noticed as I sat up.  
“Ouch”, I grumbled, rubbing at my sore areas (see: my ass) and struggling to my feet.

Standing up and squinting about, I quickly noticed the soft glow of my fallen torch where it laid on the ground, resting against a massive pillar. And as I walked towards it, my leather boots clicking against the smooth floor, my ears picked up on a distant sound….

So I stopped. And realized that I was listening to the echoes of me walking.

_…the hell? How big is this place?_

It seemed I was in a massive cavern, but as for how massive, I hadn’t a clue. The torch, once picked up, only provided a small circle of flickering light, not nearly bright enough for me to get a good look at my surroundings. So it didn’t really register what I was standing next to until I absentmindedly placed my hand on the pillar, its surface rough and callous. Pulling my hand away, traces of the gritty substance came off on my palm. And it took me a good few seconds of squinting to realize what it was.  
  
 _Rust…?_

Raising my torch above my head as high as my arm could stretch, I craned my neck and looked up to see that somewhere, up near the ceiling of that place, from the darkest shadows that my limited light couldn’t penetrate, the orange glow of my fire was reflected back at me from a set of glassy, artificial eyes. I was standing next to a _huge_ , inactive Titanium.

 _“Fuck!”_ I yelped, stumbling away from it as fast as I could, but then my back slammed into another pillar, and another and another, and it seemed as though no matter where I turned, the legs of the sleeping metal men were everywhere. A forest. Massive. My yelps echoed about the room as I tried to find my way in the dark back to the entrance, my breath coming in heavy gasps as I tried to control my breathing, but to no avail.

“Well, he hasn’t screamed, so he’s not dead!” I heard Connie’s voice, distant and echo-y, and before I knew it I was scrambling back to the tunnel, leaning into the entrance.  
“D- _don’t come down here!”_

There was a pause. And then, “Jean? What’s wrong!?” It was Sasha.

I took a second to steady my breathing, glancing behind me warily but finding nothing but darkness.  
“Titaniums! Huge! Half the size of the trees in this forest!”

“What!?”

“You have to get out of there!”

“Wait, Jean!” That was Armin. “…Are they activated?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t know!” I snapped, growing more and more irritated by the second as panic set in. “I bumped into the damn things several times, I think this room is filled with them!”

“You _think?”_

“I can’t exactly see down here!”

“Can you climb back up!?” Sasha asked.

Setting my torch down and setting my jaw, I quickly ducked back into the entrance of the tunnel, carefully setting the tip of my boot against the first ledge and working my way up, hands gripping at whatever rocky purchase it could. One leg, then the next, carefully making my way back up the sloping rocky slide. I got a few feet up, too, before the tunnel turned completely vertical and I fell back down, landing on my ass at the entrance again. “Damn!”

“Try again!” they encouraged, and I did, like hell I wanted to stay in that place. But over and over, I continued to fall back down.

“Are you sure there’s nothing of value down there, you know, before you come back up?” Connie asked.

“Oh, so _now_ you want me to try and snag something!?” I yelled. “Sure, I’ll just go take a leisurely stroll around five hundred mountain-sized _Titaniums_ in the fucking _dark_ for you, Connie! Why didn’t you just ask!?”

“I dunno!” he answered. “Maybe they’re broken! I mean, they haven’t been activated yet, and you’re standing right next to them, aren’t you!?”

Huh. Well… maybe they _were_ broken. They were mechanical, after all. They had to break sometime, didn’t they? Maybe a thousand years of sitting down here had finally done it.

“See if you can find another way out, Jean!” Sasha said. “Or see if you can maybe find something to help you back up!”

“Y-yeah… okay! I’m gonna go try!” I told them, chewing on the inside of my cheek. They hadn’t activated yet, so I was safe…. I hoped.

I backed away from the tunnel then and picked up my torch to find that its flame was low, almost completely out. After asking them to throw me down another torch, and after it hit me square in the face, I had a fresh torch burning and was ready to set off into the unknown. Shaking? I wasn’t shaking. Who do you think I am?

“Wait! Jean!” It was Armin again. “Be careful! You don’t know what’s going to activate those Titaniums!”

“Got it!” I said. Wow. What a confidence-booster.

And so I turned around and started walking.

It was surreal, walking through a forest of Titanium legs. The things were always in constant motion when I’d encountered them. And yeah, they’d always been big, but the ones in that room? _Huge._ I remember walking through that place, my own footsteps echoing in my ears, the steady _click-click_ s surrounding me making me paranoid and fearful. I kept looking behind me, knowing I’d see nothing but darkness in my tiny circle of light, but looking anyway. Pillar after pillar after pillar of rust went by, torchlight illuminating each one I passed, until the sight became as familiar as a tree in a wood or a rock in a creek. I walked through that dark room for probably fifteen minutes, in one steady direction, fire flickering, but it felt like an eternity. What if it never ended? What if it went on forever, and I’d die down there in that dark, dark cavern, surrounded by Titaniums who’d met the same end? Or, even worse—what if the Titaniums weren’t dead after all? And what if they activated while I was standing there, gawking in their midst?

I picked up the pace, my legs jerky and my hands twitching as I continued through the columns of metal men, swallowing loudly as a lump formed in my throat.

Not long after my wavering torchlight began to dim, my eyes picked up on something. I didn’t know what the heck it was, I thought maybe my eyes were playing tricks on me out of fear, but as I got closer and closer, it got brighter and brighter. Not too bright, though; it was already so dim, so _barely there._ In the distance, several yards ahead of me, was the faintest glow of blue light.

Of course, I started jogging for the thing; I didn’t know what it was, but it wasn’t a Titanium and that’s all I cared about right then. And as I grew closer, the higher up I noticed the glow was, until I stood next to the boulder-like foot of one Titanium and took a careful look around. Maybe by eyes had adjusted, or maybe it was the blue glow-y thing up there, but all of the sudden I could kind of see again. Not much, just the barest outline of things, but it was something. And what I noticed is that in front of me, was a huge rounded staircase. And around the staircase, was a circle of Titaniums. But all the Titaniums were pointed away from whatever was up there, faces turned outwards, backs to the staircase.

Would it be too reckless of me to climb those stairs and see what was up there?

Was it valuable? Would it be worth thousands of pounds in gold?

_Would it activate the Titaniums?_

Or… was it my way out?

I didn’t know. But did I have any other options? I was desperate, my flame was going out, and it was dark and I was _scared._ So no, no other options except, I dunno, _die down there._ No one was going to go down there and save me, not with that many freaky metal men everywhere, and I didn’t blame them. So I stepped forward, and placed my foot on the first stair.

I looked behind me, checking to make sure nothing had changed, no leg had moved, no head had turned my way. And then I kept climbing that staircase.

What I found at the top was… strange.

A… tub of water? It was encased in glass, crystal clear on all sides. And a curved, dome-like covering held the top shut, like a lid, and it too was glass. The water inside was what was giving off the eerie glow, but as for how, I didn’t really know. I knelt down beside the tub, peering into the water, and found that at its surface, little ripples and waves and tiny whirlpools were dancing about. Which was… doubly strange, considering the water was stagnant as hell. It shouldn’t have been doing that. Something else I noticed was that the water inside was absolutely littered with a flower of a certain type, the petals purple with deep red veins, diluting the water ever so slightly. It wasn’t a plant I’d ever seen, actually. At least, not in _those_ meadows.

So… on top of a massive pedestal in a room filled with probably a hundred towering Titaniums… was a glass tub of water and flowers?

That’s what it seemed like. Until I squinted harder and noticed that deep at the center of the thing… was what vaguely looked like a _body._

At least, that’s what it was shaped like! I quickly stood up and pressed my face to the rounded glass top, peering in as much as I could, trying to get a better glance. The water wasn’t completely clear, you see, it was foggy and faded, presumably with whatever substance those weird flowers had in them, so I couldn’t see what was in there, not _directly._ But if it was a body, then what the fuck. Was this a shrine? A tomb? Who was in this thing?

Glaring deep into the water and straining my eyes, the most I noticed was dark, swirling hair.

Whatever. This person was dead. Dead and important, if this was their designated gravesite. They probably had riches on them or in the water, too. So I decided to look around the edges of the tub for a way to open it, to pull the lid off, and surprisingly my answer came in the form of a heavy metal latch on the side, rusted over completely. It was easy to break off.

The second the latch was broken, the entire lid flipped off, hinged to the other side, and water began to flood out of the thing, soaking my boots and trousers and putting out the sputtering flame of my torch. Water began to run down the stairs on all sides, creating mini waterfalls as the blue glow of the water grew slightly brighter, but not much.

And then, slowly, I watched the body float to the top.

 _What the fuck?_ I dropped the stick that was once my source of light and took a step closer.

It was perfectly preserved. His hair was black, and some soaked strands stuck to his forehead, eyebrows and lashes just as dark. He had a strong, square jaw, but his face was still somewhat boyish, and the sun had marked the skin across his nose and cheeks with a smattering of freckles. Looking down the length of his body, I found that he had broad shoulders and long legs, and his clothing appeared very… _rich;_ a silk tunic with sleeves that fell to his wrist, its color faded and diluted from its time in the water. But I could still tell that it had been a brilliant blue made with precious dye, as had his almost-black trousers that, in their soaked state, clung to his calves and ankles. His feet were bare, though, and he had a thick leather belt at his waist with a buckle that was made from… probably gold. A familiar design marked the buckle, probably a clan’s crest of some sort. I didn’t know what it was. But it was gold, and I wanted it, so I reached out to try and snag it off the dead guy.

That was when an ear-tearing screech ripped at my eardrums, and the noise surrounded the room, echoing around, and I could have sworn I could feel my bones shaking along with the vibrations.

_Gods, please!_

I looked up, the screeching still tearing through the air around me, eyes wide with fear, to find that the entire room of Titaniums, as far as I could see, were moving. Their rust-covered bodies protesting against the first movements in a millennium, metal scraping against metal, I watched in silent horror as they all picked up their feet and slowly turned around. To face me. I was in the center of a circle of mountainous, activated Titaniums.

Their eyes glowed a bright yellow.

They weren’t dead after all.

And they weren’t the only ones.

Because when I looked back down at the dead guy in the water, a pair of large, deep blue eyes stared back up at me.

**Author's Note:**

> dont any of you dare say "marco's eyes aren't blue!" yet, you haven't read the next chapter, save it for then, lmao ~~if I post it~~
> 
>  
> 
> [a thing if you're interested](http://8tracks.com/yolownly/eas)


End file.
